band members l to r:



BIO


Few bands get to the top and drop out so fast as Helloween. Their career is characterized by ups, downs, disappearances, new members, name changes and a lot of critics.


The band started in end of '70's (1978 to be precise), when Kai Hansen and Peter Sielck formed a band named Gentry, with some guest musicians. Two years later, they decide to invite two new members in the band: Markus Grosskopf on bassist and Ingo Schwichtenberg on drums. And with the new members they changed their name to Second Hell.


The band still wasn't satisfied with their new name, so in '82 they changed it again to Iron Fist. At that time, Kai Hansen was trying to bring a new guitarist to his project. It was Michael Weikath, who came from an unknown band named Powerfool. They then changed their name again and finally to Helloween.


After two years full of rehearsals and a few gigs, they were finally invited to record two songs for a collection named "Death Metal", which in spite of the name it had nothing to do with the style. They recorded "Metal Invaders" (their first hit) and "Oernst of Life". The second one was in fact an old composition from Weikath's last band. Recently this music was re-released in a double CD named "12 years in Noise", from their first label, Noise Records.


In their self-named first mini-LP, released in '85, the vocals were done by Kai Hansen, who also sang in their first album, "Walls of Jericho", But Hansen couldn't sing and play guitar at the same time, and they invited Michael Kiske to join the band. As everybody knows, this was the perfect decision, 'cause Michael Kiske's amazing voice and charisma got Helloween to the top all over the world.


With this formation, the band released their masterpieces, "Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. I and II". But in the beginning of the '90's, they ran in to some serious problems First, guitarist/vocalist/mentor Kai Hansen left the band, alleging tour fatigue. Kai formed another band some months later, Gamma Ray. Then, Michael Kiske got involved with an obscure religion, and started a lot of misunderstanding with the other members.


But surely the worst episode happened with drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who had some schizophrenic hereditary problems. Before a show in Japan, he dropped on the floor and started to cry compulsively. While touring, he used to become very depressed, and then this was compounded by euphoric moments caused by cocaine use.


Everybody knows how this story ended: Ingo commit suicide. With all these problems, it becomes obvious why the next few albums didn't have a good repercussion. The band started a fight with labels, and according to Weikath, Noise didn't paid then what they should have, EMI fired them, and even nowadays they are rumors they're having problems with Castle.


After overcoming all these problems, they invited Andi Deris to replace Michi's place and Uli Kusch (ex-Gamma Ray) to the play the drums. And so, with the current formation (Deris, Kusch, Weikath, Grosskopf and Roland Grapow) they released "Master of the Rings" and tried to get back to the top. In the last year, they released "The Time of the Oath", a double-live album named "High Live".


Now, in 1998, they have just released their lastest album, "Better than Raw", wich is considered the best since Keepers. The band stays the same for the happiness of the fans. Now we will have to wait for the next album until the next millenium.



DISCOGRAPHY


HELLOWEEN EP 1986

Track listing: 1- Starlight 2- Murderer 3- Warrior 4- Victim of Fate 5- Cry for Freedom.

No information available at this time.

WALLS OF JERICHO/JUDAS 1986

Track listing: 1- Starlight 2- Murderer 3- Warrior 4- Victim of Fate 5- Cry for Freedom 6- Walls of Jericho / Ride the Sky 7- Reptile 8- Guardians 9-Phantoms of Death 10- Metal Invaders 11- Gorgar 12- Heavy Metal (is the law) 13- How Many Tears 14- Judas.

No information available at this time.

KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PART I 1987

Track listing: 1- Initiation 2- I'm Alive 3- A Little Time 4- Twilight of the Gods 4- A Tale That Wasn't Right 5- Future World 6- Halloween 7- Follow the Sign

Great album. The first one to become a big success. Features the 13 minute epic Halloween. First album to feature new singer Michael Kiske.

PMUSA Pick-Best of Artist

KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PART II 1988

Track listing: 1- Invitation 2- Eagle Fly Free 3- You Always Walk Alone
4- Rise and Fall 5- Dr. Stein 6- We Got the Right 7- Save Us 8- March Of Time 9- I Want Out 10- Keeper of the Seven Keys

Followup to Keepers Part 1. Features 13 minute epic Keeper of the Seven Keys

LIVE IN THE U.K. 1989

Track listing: 1- A Little Time 2- Dr. Stein 3- Future World 4- Rise and Fall 5- We Got the Right 6- I Want Out 7- How Many Tears

Also packaged as I Want Out Live and Keeper's Live. The I Want Out Live Version was released in the US with one less track (Rise and Fall). The Keeper's Live Version had the same track listing as Live In The U.K.

Last album to feature Kai Hanson

THE BEST-THE REST-THE RARE 1990

Track listing: 1- I Want Out 2- Dr. Stein 3- Future World 4- Judas 5- Walls of Jericho 6- Ride the Sky 7- Halloween 8- Livin' Ain't no Crime
9- Save Us 10- Victim of Fate 11- Savage 12- Don't Run for Cover 13- Keeper of the Seven Keys

Features hits from their first 3 albums plus B-sides.

PINK BUBBLES GO APE 1991

Track listing: 1- Pink Bubbles Go Ape 2- Kids of the Century 3- Back On the Streets 4- Number One 5- Heavy Metal Hamsters 6- Going Home 7- Someone's Crying 8- Mankind 9- I'm Doing Fine Crazy Man 10- The Chance 11- Your Turn 12- Shit and Lobster *(japanese bonus)

First album to feature Roland Grapow. No information available at this time.

CHAMELEON 1993

Track listing: 1- First Time 2- When The Sinner 3- I Don't Wanna Cry no More 4- Crazy Cat 5- Giants 6- Windmill 7- Revolution Now 8- In the Night 9- Music 10- Step Out of Hell 11- I Believe 12- Longing

Last album to feature Michael Kiske and Ingo Schwichtenberg. No information available at this time.

MASTER OF THE RINGS 1994

Track listing: 1- Irritation 2- Sole Survivor 3- Where the Rain Grows 4- Why? 5- Mr. Ego 6- Perfect Gentleman 7- The Game is On 8- Secret Alibi 9- Take me Home 10- In the Middle of a Heartbeat 11- Still We Go

First album to feature new singer Andi Deris (formerly of Pink Cream 69) and drummer Uli Kusch

THE TIME OF THE OATH 1996

Track listing: 1- We Burn 2- Steel Tormentor 3- Wake Up the Mountain 4- Power 5- Forever and One (neverland) 6- Before the War
7- A Million to One 8- Anything my Mamma Don't Like 9- Kings Will Be Kings 10- Mission Motherland 11- If I Knew 12- The Time of the Oath
13- Still I Don't Know *(japanese bonus) 14- Take it to the Limit *(japanese bonus)

Excellent album. My personal favorite. The title track is incredible.

PMUSA Pick- Best of Artist

HIGH LIVE 1998

Track listing: DISC ONE 1- We Burn 2- Wake Up the Mountain 3- Sole Survivor 4- The Chance 5- Why? 6- Eagle Fly Free 7- The Time of the Oath 8- Future World 9- Dr. Stein

DISC TWO 1- Before the War 2- Mr. Ego (take me down) 3- Power 4- Where the Rain Grows 5- In the Middle of a Heartbeat 6- Perfect Gentleman 7- Steel Tormentor

Great double live album. Feature many Helloween classics.

BETTER THAN RAW 1998

Track listing: 1- Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period in Z
2- Push 3- Falling Higher 4- Hey Lord! 5- Don't Spit on My Mind 6- Revelation 7- Time 8- I Can 9- A Handful of Pain 10- Lavdate Dominvm 11- Back on the Ground 12- Midnight Sun

Well everything I heard about Better Than Raw is true. It is one of Helloween's best albums. Although I'm still partial to Time of the Oath.

METAL JUKEBOX 1999

Track listing: 1. He's a Woman She's a Man (Scorpions) 2. Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull) 3. Lay All Your Love On Me (Abba) 4. Space Oddity (David Bowie) 5. From Out Of Nowhere (Faith No More) 6. All My Loving (Beatles) 7. Hocus Pocus (Focus) 8. Faith Healer (Alex Harvey) 9. Juggernaut (Frank Marino) 10. White Room (Cream) 11. Mexican (Babe Ruth) 12. Rat Bat Blue (Deep Purple) (japanese bonus track)

Interesting album. Helloween does covers of many early pre-metal metal bands (70's Scorpions, Frank Marino, Cream, Deep Purple). Plus a variety of other songs.

THE DARK RIDE 2000

Track listing: 1. Behind The Portal (Intro) 2. Mr. Torture 3. All Over The Nations 4. Escalation666 5. Mirror Mirror 6. If I Could Fly 7. Salvation 8. The Departed/The Sun Is Going Down 9. I Live For Your Pain 10. We Damn The Night 11. Immortal 12. The Dark Ride 13. Madness of The Crowds Japanese Bonus Track)

Notes: The Official release date is 10/30/00 Worldwide and unknown for the US..



The albums seen here can be obtained from Dynasty Music

Dynasty Music is the Official Music Source for Masters Of Metal



[HOME]/[News And Stuff]/Bands:[AB]/[CD]/[EF]/[GH]/[IJ]/[KL]/[MN]/
[OPQ]/[RS]/[TUV]/[WXYZ]/View All Bands /Misc:[LINKS PAGE]/[WEBRING INFO]



Email: Masters Of Metal